NEBRASKA – Even though the Nebraska Republican Party did not endorse all five of the sitting Republicans in the U.S. Senate and House races, the incumbents cinched clear victories in the Primary Election yesterday.
In the U.S. Senate results:
Pete Ricketts won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in the Nebraska special primary election. He’ll face Democrat Preston Love in the General Election.
Deb Fischer won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in the Nebraska primary election. She’ll face Legal Marijuana NOW candidate Kerry Eddy in the General Election.
In the races for the US House of Representatives:
Mike Flood won the Republican nomination for U.S. House in Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District. He’ll face Democrat Carol Blood in the General Election.
Don Bacon won the Republican nomination for U.S. House in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District. He’ll face Democrat Tony Vargas in the General Election.
Adrian Smith won the Republican nomination for U.S. House in Nebraska’s 3rd Congressional District. He’ll face the winner of the close Democratic Primary, either Daniel Ebers or David Else.
PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announced late yesterday that the State Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) has found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing involving volunteers who were calling signatories of the Abortion Rights ballot petitions.
The volunteers were connected to the group, South Dakota Petition Integrity which is properly registered at the Secretary of State’s Office.
We brought you the story yesterday and mentioned that the DCI was investigating the calls at the request of the Secretary of State’s Office which had received complaints from some of the measure’s signers. DCI’s investigation found that the calls do not violate existing South Dakota law.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley stated in a news release, quote, “The DCI investigation acted promptly in reviewing the complaints as well as the scripts used by the volunteers, based on the evidence collected, there is no indication of criminal activity.”
PIERRE, S.D. – Governor Kristi Noem and Attorney General Marty Jackley announced that South Dakota has joined 17 other states in a legal challenge to what they are describing as another example of overreach by the Biden Administration to advance radical gender ideology.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released 2024 Guidance, effective immediately, directing that it is harassing conduct to repeatedly misgender or deny access to a bathroom consistent with an employee’s gender identity. The Guidance also directs that it is harassing conduct to inquire of one’s gender identity, making it virtually impossible to even follow the Guidance.
Noem said, quote, “With this Guidance, the Biden Administration is failing to protect the privacy, safety, and religious rights of all employees. It is an egregious attempt to overly dictate the workplace and unconstitutionally compel speech. South Dakota will continue to fight back against these far-left gender identity mandates.”
Jackley stated that the EEOC is burdening employers, confusing gender, and doing so unlawfully.
The Governor and Attorney General state that policymaking of this controversial nature must be left to the elected officials who are accountable to the people, not bureaucrats sitting on the EEOC Commission.
South Dakota joins Tennessee, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia in filing this lawsuit in the Eastern District of Tennessee.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (Mike Moen, Minnesota News Connection) – It’s graduation season, and in Minnesota, it’s not just high schools and universities sending off waves of students. Organizers say they’re seeing a lot of people complete apprenticeship training for careers in the construction trades.
Building Strong Communities is a statewide apprenticeship program that prepares future construction workers over a 12-week period. At its spring graduation at North Hennepin Community College, 105 men and women received their certificates.
Rick Martagon, executive director of Building Strong Communities, said that’s up 41% from last year, which coincides with a growth in a more diverse group of apprentices, including older students.
“And a lot of people are making a career change as adults who have been in the workforce for quite a while. And they’re interested in doing something else, and they look at the opportunities within the building construction trades and are making that change,” he explained.
He thinks there’s been a more intentional effort to recruit the next generation of workers in the trades, who might have concerns that the work is harder or not as lucrative as technology jobs. Martagon said starting wages are strong and earned credentials can be used all over the country. National forecasts show an overwhelming need for skilled trade workers with the renewed push for housing construction.
Analysts say the industry needs to move even faster with recruitment, as many construction workers retire. Martagon says the good news is, demand is strong for solid-paying jobs, making their outreach a little easier.
“We’re in a good place right now as we see growth in retirements and a good economy, investment in infrastructure,” Martagon continued.
Federal programs, like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, are spurring projects, including construction related to clean energy. Building Strong Communities is supported by unions around Minnesota and state grants. Leaders say a strong component is that it starts with virtual classes before hands-on training, and participants are given a true sense of what it’s like to perform this work – helping them decide whether to continue.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Kathleen Shannon, Greater Dakota News Service) – Homelessness in South Dakota may be down overall, but the state’s urban areas are an exception. New programs in Sioux Falls aim to address it.
The most recent point-in-time data show the number of people unhoused in Sioux Falls rose by 20% between 2022 and 2023. Native people experience homelessness at a disproportionately high rate, making up nearly 40% of the unhoused population in the area. So, South Dakota Urban Indian Health launched the Wo’Okiye program last year, with case management services and help making and getting to medical appointments.
Monica Bailey, program manager and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe member, said these wraparound services give staff a variety of options to respond.
“If they want to go to treatment or if they want to talk. We also provide smudging, therapeutic beading and sewing. We just meet people where they’re at on their journey,” she said.
Bailey added the organization is averaging 1,300 contacts a month — an increase from about 260 last September, after launching its initial street outreach efforts a year ago.
The City of Sioux Falls also hired its first Homelessness Services Coordinator in April. Bailey said Wo’Okiye will work closely with the coordinator, and has partnered with others in the city.
“For example, we have a great relationship with downtown Sioux Falls Library, where they can call us and we can go in and check on someone, and bring them to our space or see if we need to do a warm handoff,” Bailey said.
The unhoused population in Rapid City also grew last year, although homelessness across the state has decreased nearly 8% since 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
RAPID CITY, S.D. – Rapid City Police say a man arrested Sunday for stealing a car has now also been charged with murder.
Police say 35-year-old Cole Younger was initially arrested after taking a rideshare vehicle after being given a ride…he allegedly took out a knife and told the driver to exit the car.
The Pennington County Sheriff’s Office later located the car on Catron Boulevard and authorities conducted a traffic stop, taking Younger into custody.
On Monday, police were called to 1313 N. Lacrosse Street for a report of an unresponsive woman located in a room at the Rodeway Inn Rapid City.
Police determined the woman was dead with a laceration to her neck. She has been identified as Brandi Snowfly, 41, of Rapid City. Based on preliminary information gathered at the scene along with details discovered during the investigation, police believe Snowfly entered the hotel with Cole Younger. After an undisclosed period, Younger exited the hotel before summoning the rideshare service.
The result of this is that a charge of first-degree murder has been added to Younger’s offenses, and he remains in custody. It is believed Younger and Snowfly knew each other before her death, and police have no reason to believe there is an ongoing threat to public safety.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Stu Whitney / South Dakota News Watch) – The U.S. Postal Service has agreed to “pause” until at least next year a controversial plan to downgrade post office operations in Sioux Falls and Huron to local processing centers, joining similar implementation delays in other states.
The original Sioux Falls plan, finalized April 30 by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, involved shifting non-local mail operations in South Dakota’s largest city to a facility in Omaha, Nebraska.
The reorganization sparked concerns about slower mail delivery to rural communities because letters and packages formerly processed and sent from Sioux Falls will be routed through Omaha, 160 miles away.
Similar concerns were voiced in February, when the USPS finalized a decision to downgrade its Huron facility to a local processing center, moving all non-local processing to Fargo, North Dakota.
South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds joined 26 senators in sending a bipartisan letter to DeJoy on May 8 urging a pause in implementing the plans, adding that the USPS should not make “irrevocable changes to its processing and delivery network.”
DeJoy responded with a May 9 letter to Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the Democratic chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. DeJoy agreed to “pause the movement of processing operations associated with the mail processing facility reviews” until at least Jan. 1, 2025.
“Even then,” DeJoy wrote Peters, “we will not advance these efforts without advising you of our plans to do so, and then only at a moderated pace of implementation.”
Rounds heralded the move Monday on his Twitter page, saying that “this is a step in the right direction to protecting rural mail services across our state.”
In a statement dated April 30, the USPS said that the Sioux Falls facility would remain open as a local processing center and will receive “up to $12.75 million in upgrades,” including upgraded sorting equipment, new lighting and renovated bathrooms and breakrooms. (Photo: Stu Whitney / South Dakota News Watch)
The Sioux Falls downtown facility is currently a processing and distribution center. The USPS plan called for it to remain open as a local processing center and receive “up to $12.75 million in upgrades,” including upgraded sorting equipment, new lighting and renovated bathrooms and break rooms.
In his letter, DeJoy made it clear that as part of the pause, “the positive investments in the facilities will also not commence, just as the annual cost savings associated with these mail moves will not be achieved while we pause.”
USPS expects the change would have impacted 35 non-managerial jobs and three management positions in Sioux Falls. Those jobs are protected by union contracts, but the employees would likely have had to shift to other facilities, said Todd West, president of the South Dakota chapter of the American Postal Workers Union.
Mark Inglett, a USPS spokesman based in Kansas City, told News Watch when the plan was finalized that there was no set timetable for implementation.
Service times for first-class mail are already trending downward in South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska, according to USPS data. The on-time rate for fiscal year 2024 is 81.4%, compared to 86.8% at the same time last year.
The planned reorganization was part of a $40 billion “Delivering for America” investment strategy spearheaded by DeJoy, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump in June 2020.
It continues a trend from 2012, when the USPS closed processing centers in Aberdeen, Mobridge and Pierre, leaving South Dakota with facilities in Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Huron.
The intent of the plan was to “upgrade and improve the USPS’s processing, transportation and delivery networks” in the face of changing mail habits and increased competition from package shipping companies.
In November 2023, the USPS announced it has lost $6.5 billion in the most recent fiscal year, despite its own projections that it would break even.
DeJoy cited inflation as a main cause of the poor performance and pointed to the ongoing restructuring as a positive step in turning things around.
“We are just in the early stages of one of the nation’s largest organizational transformations,” he said at the time.
The USPS on April 9 proposed an overall increase of nearly 8% on the price of postage, pending approval from a regulatory commission. Forever stamps would cost 73 cents instead of 68 cents under the proposal.
DeJoy was harshly criticized by U.S. senators at an April 14 oversight hearing that spotlighted mail delivery delays stemming from centralized USPS operations in the Atlanta area.
Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia cited statistics that showed on-time delivery rates of 36% and told DeJoy: “You’ve got weeks, not months, to fix this. And if you don’t fix it, I don’t think you’re fit for this job.”
